Escondido sculpture garden to open Sunday

Closer to home, examples of her work can now be seen in the lawn
of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, in the form of
colorful cats.

But four years ago, when Stevenson called the city, none of de
Saint Phalle's work was displayed in Escondido and officials were
more than happy to help.

"I was, and I guess we all were, simply beside ourselves," said
Don Anderson, the city's community services director. "It sounded
too good to be true. I have been at the city 35 years and I have
never been involved in as exciting a project as this was."

The artist completed all of the Queen Califia's designs -- down
to the colors and types of tiles -- before she died in June 2002 in
San Diego. She was 71 years old.

Since the designs were complete, her staff pressed on,
installing Queen Califia and laying each piece of glass, including
tiles shipped from Italy.

"It will definitely be bittersweet for us because this is the
last big thing she wanted done," Stevenson said. "Now it will be
done and it will be like, 'OK, where do we go from here?' "

City to care for Queen Califia

Today, city officials see the sculpture garden as a breathtaking
opportunity to enhance Escondido's growing reputation as an arts
center.

"This was such a coup for Escondido," Anderson said. "This is
putting us on the map internationally. There has always been an
emphasis on arts and culture, but this will put us where few other
cities could be."

Escondido has spent $300,000 for site preparation and
landscaping and, last week, the City Council used $100,000 from the
city public art fund to set up an endowment to pay for buses to
bring local students to the sculpture garden.

Stevenson said he thinks de Saint Phalle would have liked the
gesture.

"It is a gift for all of the people of the U.S.," he said. "It
would be her fondest hope that a lot of people will come and visit
it and it will never have an admission charge."

Starting Monday, the sculpture garden will be open and free to
the public daily from 9 a.m. to sunset, Anderson said. For more
information, visit the Web site at www.queencalifia.com.